OAO Sberbank plans to sell non-
banking assets as it boosts domestic lending and Russia’s
government prepares to sell shares in the country’s largest
bank, Chief Executive Officer German Gref said.

The sales, ranging from real estate to Siberian oil fields,
will raise “tens of billions of rubles” next year, Gref told
reporters in Moscow late yesterday. Sberbank plans to sell crude
deposits it acquired from Urals Energy Plc after the London-
listed company missed payments on more than $1 billion of loans
in the first half of 2011, Gref said.

Gref said the government’s plan to sell about 7.6 percent
of Sberbank’s shares on the open market, reducing its stake to
just over 50 percent, is a “positive development” that should
open the company to a wider pool of investors. Funds from the
U.S. and Asia have already expressed interest in buying the
stock, said Gref, who was economy minister from 2000 to 2007.

“I view privatization as a very positive thing,” Gref
said. “Overall the share of private ownership in the Russian
economy is insufficient.” The government is likely to retain
control of the lender for at least 2 to 3 years, he added.

Sberbank, formerly the Soviet Union’s monopoly retail bank,
controls more than half of domestic Russian deposits. The
company last week reported a 10-fold surge in third-quarter net
income to 45.8 billion rubles ($1.49 billion) as lending rose
faster than provisions for bad loans. Russian bank lending to
consumers has increased for eight straight months, while loans
to companies have climbed for seven, central bank data show.

Synchronize the Sale

Gref said Moscow-based Sberbank will seek to synchronize
the privatization sale with its global depositary receipt
program, which may account for more than 5 percent of the
lender’s capital. The lender expects its loans to companies to
grow 13 percent to 15 percent and its retail lending to jump
between 20 and 23 percent next year, Gref said.

Sberbank shares declined 0.3 percent to 107.08 rubles as of
1:15 p.m. in Moscow trading, valuing the lender at 2.3 trillion
rubles.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Denis Maternovsky in Moscow at
dmaternovsky@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Gavin Serkin at
gserkin@bloomberg.net